Painting/Transcript
Transcript The Mysteries of Life With Tim and Moby Several famous paintings are shown on easels at an auction. Tim and Moby are shown sitting among the attendees of the art auction. Tim: Can you believe they're auctioning all these masterpieces? Moby: --Beep! Moby raises his auction number 204 paddle into the air. Tim: Hey, what are you doing?! Moby: Beep. Moby holds up a flyer that reads, "Art Auction. Masterpiece Replicas! Opening Bids: $5" Tim: Oh. That would explain the prices. Tim holds up a letter and reads it. Tim: Dear Tim and Moby, I would like you to make a movie about painting. Please do! Please. From, Rosy Muffins. Well, since you asked so nicely... Tim's hand is shown painting colored streaks across a plain background. Tim: Painting is a way of making an image by applying color to a surface, usually with a brush. That surface is often flat, like a canvas, paper, or a wall. But it can also be three-dimensional, like a piece of pottery or even your body! A vase is shown with flowers painted on it. Then a boy's face is shown painted like a tiger. Tim: It's one of the oldest art forms in the world. In fact, it dates back to the first cave paintings made by prehistoric humans! A caveman is shown painting animals on a cave wall. Tim: Since then, it's evolved into a universal tool for expressing creativity and culture, with a diverse range of techniques and styles. Moby: Beep Tim: Paint is made up of tiny, colored mineral grains called pigments, held together by a liquid, like oil or water. Depending on what liquid is used, different types of paint have different properties. For example, oil paint is vibrant and shiny, and can blend easily with surrounding paint. Artists can take their time with it because it dries very slowly sometimes taking days or even months, depending on the thickness of the paint. Moby is shown wearing a beret and painting trees on a canvas. Tim: In fact, some artist apply oil paint in such thick layers that you can still see the brushstrokes. The paint sticking out from the canvas gives a sense of texture, or almost a three-dimensional feel. Acrylic paint, on the other hand is fast-drying—which is great for artists who want to work quickly. Acrylics stick to many surfaces and are very long-lasting. They also come in a wider range of colors than do oil paints. Then there's watercolor, a much thinner paint that spreads easily on wet surfaces. Watercolors give paintings a softer, more blended feel. Many eastern paintings use a combination of watercolor and ink. These pieces tend to have muted colors—some are even composed entirely in shades of gray! Two watercolor paintings are shown. One shows two pagodas against cloudy mountains. The other shows a close up of a bird landing on a bamboo branch. Moby: Beep? Three blobs of paint are shown. One is red, one is blue, and one is yellow. Tim: By mixing three basic pigments—red, yellow, and blue—a painter can produce virtually any color. Adding white to a color makes it lighter: a tint. Adding black to a color makes it darker: a shade. Subtle variations of tint and shade can add perspective, the illusion of depth and distance. Tim: Now getting all this glorious color onto a surface is the job of the paintbrush. Paintbrushes come in a variety of sizes and shapes depending on what the painter wants to do. A series of different paintbrushes is shown. Tim: Flat, wide heads with lots of bristles are good for spreading paint over a large area. Pointed tips with fewer bristles are good for painting little details like tree branches or the riggings of ships. A hand is shown painting details on leaves in a tree with a fine, pointed brush. Moby: Beep Tim: Well, like other art forms, paintings can either be representational or abstract. Representational paintings are realistic, the way we see things with our eyes. Still lifes, paintings of inanimate objects like flowers or fruit, are often representational. A realistic painting of a vase of flowers is shown. Next, a portrait of a young woman in a fancy dress is shown. Tim: So are portraits, or paintings of people, and landscapes, or paintings of natural scenery. But paintings can also be abstract—pretty much the opposite of realistic! Two paintings are shown. One is simply yellow and orange blocks covering half the canvas. The other appears to be a forest scene with greens, browns and yellows, but the streaks of paint are random and do not represent reality. Tim: Abstract paintings give artist a chance to look at the world from different points of view and let their imaginations run wild. Moby: Beep? Tim: That's true, not all paintings are done just for art's sake. Some serve social or cultural purposes too. Two men are shown with paint on their faces and bodies. Tim: In tribal cultures, body painting is often used in religious ceremonies. And before cameras, portraits were the only historical records of what important people looked like. A portrait of George Washington is shown. Several children are shown painting a mural of a tree on the side of a building. Tim: A mural – A large painting on a wall or ceiling—can sometimes be a public project that brings an entire community together. Okay, back to the auction! A painting depicting four images of Moby’s head in different bright colors is unveiled by the auctioneer. Moby raises his paddle. Moby: Beep! Tim: I guess there's no accounting for taste... Category:BrainPOP Transcripts Category:BrainPOP Arts & Music Transcripts